Puducherry: Former Lok Sabha MP M Ramadass, who played a vital role towards making Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (JIPMER), an institute of national importance; has shown his concern against the institute’s Standing Academic Committee decision of eradicating the MBBS course at its Karaikal branch.

The former Parliament member has recently issued a statement urging the JIPMER’s administration not to close admissions for the MBBS course at Karaikal campus from the next academic year.

Medical Dialogues has recently reported about the said decision taken by the Standing Academic Committee on August 3 considering the poor facilities at Government General Hospital in Karaikal to extend the much-required clinical training to the MBBS students.

In view of the hospital’s assessment, it had also been decided that no MBBS admissions will take place at the Karaikal campus until the hospital is equipped with the required infrastructure and the ministry accords approval for creating 333 teaching and 1,683 non-teaching faculty posts.

The committee has forwarded its decision to the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry, which is yet to take a final call on the matter.

Bearing the committee’s decision in mind, Ramadass, who played a crucial role in moving the bill and act in the Lok Sabha to upgrade JIPMER into an institution of national importance, issued a statement seeking the institute to form a committee of three professors, who retired from the institute recently. This committee, as said by the former MP, should be constituted to evolve modalities to establish the Karaikal campus as per rules within a period of two or three years.

According to TOI, he argued that the MBBS students to be admitted for the next academic year 2019-20 will reach clinical training only in the third year (2021-22) and three years will be sufficient to create an excellent infrastructure with the given resources.

“It is fervently hoped that with a sense of war footing, Jipmer will rise to the occasion and restore the status quo in admission for the next academic year and reduce the heartburn of people of Karaikal and persons like me,” Ramadass added in his statement.

“The institute must envisage a campus smarter than its main campus and delink its association with Karaikal government GH and establish its own medical college hospital,” he further stated adding that the institute should also recruit teaching, administrative, medical and non-teaching staff members exclusively for Karaikal campus for which Union ministry had given approval.

It was reported that if the ministry takes the decision in favour of the Standing Academic Committee, 50 MBBS aspirants will face a major loss; as instead of 200 students, only 150 candidates would get admission at the prestigious institute. These 150 MBBS admissions will take place at the institute’s main campus only.

The concern arisen following the committee’s decision was; what would happen to the MBBS students, who are currently studying at the Karaikal campus, which is, as said by the Standing Academic Committee, having poor facilities for conducting the clinical training to the MBBS students.

When contacted, JIPMER Dean (Academic and Research) Dr R P Swaminathan informed about the transfer stating that the third-year MBBS students (first batch of students, who joined in July 2017) in the campus will be shifted to the Jipmer main campus in Puducherry to undergo clinical training from January next year. The second and first-year MBBS students will continue at the Karaikal campus and shift to the main campus in the academic years 2019-20 and 2020-21.

“We have not got the approval so far from the Ministry,” Dr Swaminathan added.

On the creation of teaching posts, an official had informed, “The ministry has given approval for creation of teaching and non-teaching posts. Once we fill up the posts and ensure adequate infrastructure at Karaikal GH, we can resume the course at Karaikal campus.”